Friday, May 27, 2011

Racial/ethnic differences in homosexuality

A reader suggests that homosexuality might be more accepted in the Hispanic community because of a higher prevalence. While working as a teacher, he noticed quite a few effeminate Latino boys.

The GSS asks repondents about the gender of their sexual partners. I calculated for each major racial/ethnic group the percent who are gay or bisexual (i.e., the percent whose sexual partners are exclusively same-sex or who are of both sexes). I combined these two categories to boost sample size.

Percent gay or bisexual

Males (sample size = 7,753)
Whites 3.4
Blacks 4.4
Mex-Ams 4.5

Females (sample size = 8,694)
Whites 2.7
Blacks 3.0
Mex-Ams 1.8

Mex-Ams do have an apparently higher level of male homosexuality, but there are no statistically significant differences among any groups at the 95 percent confidence level. (The sample sizes for minority homosexuals are small.)

The black/Mex-Am female difference is statistically significant at the 90 percent confidence level. Lesbianism seems to rise with the independence/dominance of the females of a racial/ethnic group.

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